The McCain campaign's pushback on the revelation that their candidate recently published an article in support of health care deregulation is pretty simple.
According to the campaign, McCain was only talking about a limited, specific type of state-based regulatory restriction. Of course their candidate doesn’t think most health care regulation is a problem, and he certainly wasn’t making a broader point about deregulation of the health care industry in general. This defense has already gained some traction with the media's "fact checkers."
Hmmm. Did anyone bother checking the candidate's own speeches ... as posted on his own website?
Health care in the United States suffers from too much regulation. Ronald Reagan showed us 25 years ago the power of deregulation to build prosperity.
What about the "state-based regulation" defense. Did McCain limit the comments in his speech to state regulation?
No. Precisely the opposite:
Michigan -- and the United States -- needs deregulation, freedom, innovation, and private control of money -- especially in health care reform.
Deregulation, innovation, and private control of money. It worked so well for Wall Street, let’s try it with health insurance companies!
Speaking of deregulatory "innovation," where have I heard that concept praised most recently.
Oh, I remember:
[T]he mortgage market, especially what’s known as the sub-prime sector ... has seen tremendous innovation in recent years, as new lending products make credit available to more people. For the most part, this has been a positive development ....
- George W. Bush, August 31, 2007
Yup. The "positive development" of "innovation" in the subprime market.
Let’s bring it to health care.
John McCain's "Subprime Health Care Plan."
Has a nice ring.
Bush Excerpt from Yeah, Right: "This Economy Is Strong" and Other Tall Tales (page 7).